Return To Stevenson's Isle

By Noel Bodenmiller

The foursome from Captain Stevenson's Secret return to search for treasure on Stevenson's Isle. What could possibly go wrong this time? The crew of the Sylvester find new challenges and a mystery as they make their way to the island in this second book of the series; A Diary of Treasures

• Language: English
• Publisher: Noel Bodenmiller
• Release date: Jul 26, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310409394

Noel Bodenmiller

Presenting entertaining stories of the past, present and future. (No flora or fauna were intentionally harmed during the creative process.)

Book preview

RETURN TO STEVENSON’S ISLE

Series: A Diary of Treasures - Book II

Noel Raymond Bodenmiller

For those who consider me a friend

Copyright (c) 2014 Noel R. Bodenmiller

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Cover: Oregon Coast, near Coos Bay

(c) 2014 Noel R. Bodenmiller

I was having a nice dream when the telephone rang. I reached for it swiftly and answered it quietly.

Hello?

Yeah, its Mike

Hey Michael, what the heck? I whispered, Its two a.m.

Not out here its not! You might want to give your old lady a kiss and turn on the television, buddy.

What? Hang on.

With advice like that I got out of bed and quickly carried the phone to the living room television while I listened more to Mike about how we might both be paupers by morning.

I think our little fortunes were just flushed down the toilet. He continued, Try ABC or get on the internet, and look under the word Ponzi.

I could not hear what the newscaster was saying while Mike was still talking my ear off.

Okay, I think I got it. I'll check it out, Anne is still asleep so I'll call you back.

Well there it was, splashed all over the news and the more I listened the more I began to recognize the truth in Mike's statement.

Even though Anne and I and Mike and Cathy lived thousands of miles apart, we had both opted to make the best of our new fortunes and had invested them heavily in high return opportunities that seemed to bear little risk to us.

Little risk, as compared to how we had acquired the original funds. As we invested, we had kept in touch and so we gravitated toward similar investments.

Sure enough, the indications from the news report gave a number of hints that we were all about to lose our shirts. Ponzi schemes were not new; we just didn't realize we were in one.

I called Mike after the newscast was over.

Hey Mike, its me, you're right, this looks bad... real bad. I just put on this fancy house addition and Anne bought a new car. This is gonna suck big time, she loves that car....

Mike interrupted before I could say more.

I'm not sure you get the whole picture yet... I was at Kokomo Bay West, having a drink when this broke over the late night broadcast. Some of the other guys there started putting up quite a fuss about the television volume with the bartender so they could hear the details. They started making a zillion phone calls, trying to selvedge whatever they could before the stock market opens in the morning and they apparently weren't doing very well. They went from 'business as usual speak' to loud and angry within an hour. I left when they began to show some malice in their eyes. By the looks of the vehicles in the parking lot, I'd say they have a lot more to lose than we do.

Mike, if our investments go like those guys were predicting, I gotta tell ya, we're gonna have little more than what's left in the old treasure chest and that might lose value quick too, with the price of gold and such.

Man!

I know. Did you tell Cathy?

No, not yet. She'd stayed home to watch some favorite show and was asleep by the time I got home after listening to these guys at the bar.

Well, keep in touch, we'll see what happens tomorrow... umm later today.

I resisted waking Anne. She still had her job and had to be up soon enough for that. I mulled over the future financial impact and I realized that it was useless to try to go back to sleep.

Anne's retirement was fast approaching, nearly as quickly as our investments were dwindling. We lost millions while many others lost thousands. No one was feeling sorry for us either. We had rolled the dice with our fortune from Stevenson's Isle and over the months of downturns in the market, a comparatively small amount remained. I decided something had to be done to stop the bleeding, so I suggested that we make the most of our situation by taking a cheerful trip to Costa Rica to see Michael and Cathy. We flew out on our frequent flyer credits, which we figured would soon fade away into oblivion if we didn't make use of them soon. After transferring to a commuter flight, our favorite couple picked us up at Quepos Manaqua Airport and the four of us gave ourselves the royal treatment at the Puerto Quepos Ritz.

We're living pretty high on the hog this week and probably won't get to see the sights like this again, according to our bank balance. How are you guys fairing? Pretty much the same as us, I presume.

"Yeah, we're in the same area. You did get our attention when you asked about returning to the island. We're not doing much positive in the way of money, we're just glad we put some into the Sylvester